CPWs HR department is understood to have contacted past and present employees last week for statements including former CPW head of trade sales Keith Bennett.

CPW staff are believed to have complained about Frasers management style when he was away on holiday at the start of the month. His leave was extended on his return pending the investigation.

CPW chief executive Charles Dunstone said:"Fraser is suspended pending an internal investigation into certain matters."

Fraser was unavailable for comment.

As Mobile News went to press Vanguard was still finalising the terms of the takeover.

Vanguard financial director Mike McFarlane said the firm had received several bids since going into voluntary administration. "We have continued trading" he said. "There has been interest in Vanguard as a going concern and we have received a winning bid."

He added: "There are creditors obviously but there is no animosity between Vanguard and any network or manufacturer."

Vanguard owes at least £3.6 million according to administrators B&C Associates. Its assets do not cover its debts. Joint administrator Filippa Connor said: "We are offering its assets for sale at the highest price we can get. A sale is imminent."

Vanguard is understood to retain a customer base of 30 to 40 dealers. It has traditionally connected to Vodafone but the sale of associated dealership chain KJC in November last year severely diminished its volume of connections and 3 is now understood to dominate these.

Meanwhile former Vanguard managing director Ian Heritage has joined Shebang Distribution as new business development manager. Heritage was serving three months notice but Vanguards administration has curtailed this to enable him to join Shebang early.

Heritage resigned as managing director in February after a difference of opinion with Vanguards board of directors. He took up a role as sales director on the request of the shareholders but resigned that post in mid-April.
Heritage said: "Shebang will be a very strong player in the market place. Iain [Humphrey Shebang managing director] has the right attitude and focus. I will provide extra support."

Hurring who has been at the company for more than 15 years is said to be leaving because of management differences with Kyle Whitehill Vodafone UKs enterprise business unit director according to sources close to the situation.

A Vodafone spokeswoman denied reports of strife in the department however. She said: "Richard Hurring is leaving the company because he has been offered a job with creative technical agency Marvellous Mobile."

His departure follows the surprise exit of Vodafone director of enterprise sales Chris Huggett last month who was also believed to have clashed with Whitehill.

Hurrings departure follows a long list of high-profile exits from the company over the past 12 months.

Marketing manager Peter Bamford left the company in March and finance director Ken Hydon left last year. Other notable departures include senior manager for business partnerships Jason Rigby and head of dealer sales Iain Graham.

With the retirement of Sir Julian Horn-Smith and Lord Ian MacLaurin from the board in July there are few of Sir Christopher Gent "Newbury boys" left at the company. Gent who oversaw the firms rapid expansion in the 1980s and 1990s also symbolically severed all ties with Vodafone in March by stepping down as president for life after he reportedly disagreed with CEO Arun Sarins management policy.

Hurrings departure at Vodafone will further fuel rumours of unrest at the company as it tries to regain the confidence of its investors. This follows a rocky few months for the company that included the sale of Vodafone Japan in March.

(Text; Helen Kaye)

O2 sales director collected the award from world-famous comedienne Joan Rivers at a gala dinner dance at The Hilton on Park Lane attended by more than 1000 people (see page 40).
This is the first time The Carphone Warehouse lost the title since 1995 the year of the first Mobile News Awards.
All nine judges gave O2 first place knocking Carphone Warehouse into the Commended slot. But the UKs leading retailer bounced back winning two Awards for Best Customer Service and Best Online Retailer.
O2 was also the first winner of the new Mystery Caller award given to the company which racks up the most points from a year of our Mystery Caller network surveys which appear each fortnight in Mobile News.
The nights biggest winner was Nokia which won the treble with a hat-trick of trophies (Best Manufacturer Innovative Product and Technological Advance).
Another new first-time Mobile News Awards winner was Hugh Symons which picked up the trophy in the new category for Best Distributor (Networks).
Meanwhile it was business as usual for 20:20 Logistics which added a ninth Best Distributor (Handsets) trophy to its display cabinet which already contains eight Mobile News Awards trophies.
Other winners included 3 for its Dual Downloads product (Innovative Service) Nokias N91 handset (Innovative Product) mobiles.co.uk (Small Retailer) Azzurri (Business to Business Dealer) Vodafone (National Advertising Marketing and PR campaign) Virgin Mobile (Local Advertising Marketing and PR campaign) Total Repair Solutions (Service and Repair) and Dextra Solutions (Distributor Accessories)
Samsung Mobile director Mark Mitchinson was voted Industry Personality of the Year in a real-time electronic vote on the night. He beat contenders Marc Allera (3) John Barton (3) Keith Curran (Yes Telecom) Charles Dunstone (Carphone Warehouse) Graeme Hutchinson (Virgin Mobile) Peter Jones (Phones International) John McFarnon (Unique Distribution) Mark Ryan (20:20 Logistics) and Mark Stansfeld (O2).

It adds that while operators and service providers are naturally interested in introducing or developing their direct channels they must be careful about managing their existing dealer relationships.
This will help to minimise any sale channel conflict.
"Managing channel conflict is one of the most complex areas of mobile distribution due to convergence of the pure mobile specialist channel with the mass market retailer combined with the integration of the direct and indirect routes to market" it says.
"The network operator handset vendor and content provider each has a different starting point in approaching the challenge of distribution management and conflict management strategy."

A key finding of the latest annual report on sales and distribution from Informa Telecoms and Media is that while revenues from mobile data offerings are on the increase in the retail channel revenues from voice services are in overall decline.
This will come as no surprise to anyone involved at the sharp end of selling both contract and pre-pay deals as more and more customers are interested in the non-voice capabilities of their handset.
3 is the latest network to try to meet this need with the long-awaited launch of a 3G data card.
The card which should be available to 3 retailers by the end of this month will cost between £39.99 and £119.99 depending on data bundle. Monthly data bundles are priced between £20 and £45.
"Competition is intense in the marketplace" noted Informa senior research analyst Dan Winterbottom. He added that as the cost of voice minutes is driven down networks have turned to non-voice services as a way of making up the shortfall.
SMS still generates the lion´s share of data revenues he noted.
"It costs the mobile operator very little to send SMS messages across their network but the mark-up is significant" he said.
Winterbottom argues that the fact large media brands now view mobile as a significant channel to market means a big hike in the money spent on mobile content.
"This is increasing the range of content available to mobile users meaning that the lack of choice that perhaps used to hamper the growth of the mobile content sector is no longer happening" he said.
So where does this leave the market for voice services?
According to Winterbottom prices for voice minutes have fallen significantly in recent times and there is little room in the market for prices to go back up though Orange is trying to shuffle per-minute rates up on its new tariffs.
"I don´t think prices can go back up" he said. "3 played a very good game in offering economically priced bundles of minutes to grab market share and the rest of the industry has followed suit" he said.
As a result of this downward pressure on voice revenues he argues that it is inevitable that operators have had to look at non-voice services and content in particular to ease the shortfall.
"Orange and T-Mobile in particular have been very innovative in ensuring a wide range of content is available to all their users" he pointed out.
Winterbottom also has high hopes for instant messaging which he says could be as big in revenue terms as text messaging.
"This is why Vodafone has struck a deal with MSN Messenger" he said adding that it is important to realise that instant messaging is not a new technology.
"It´s something that´s been hugely popular on the desktop Internet so there´s no reason not to expect it to be good revenue earner for the mobile industry" he said.

The phone is being offered in green pink blue and orange in time for summer.
Motorola VP and director of consumer experience design Jim Wicks noted that the move takes advantage of handset demand moving from function to design.
"We´ve gone from pink to whoa´ to make the PEBL expressive and refreshing" he said.
"This is a product you choose because you want it not because you need it."
No pricing for the new coloured models is currently available.

Nathaniel Henry 19 of Beauchamp Road Upper Norwood was given bail at Horseferry Road Magistrates´ Court to appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court at a future date.
The four men have been charged with offences of robbery and violence on a tram between Arena and Sandilands tram stops on December 8 last year.
The four are accused of robbing Nathan Fallon of a Nokia 7250i worth £100 and a £69 iPod; Brendon Bullod of a mobile phone worth £35; Alex McCarthy of a Nokia 3520i and £4 in cash; Mark Phipps of a Sony Ericsson phone worth £120 and Penny Boniface of a quantity of cigarettes.
As a condition of his bail Henry was ordered not to contact his three co-defendants who had appeared in court at an earlier hearing.

According to press reports bids have come from Warburg Pincus and two joint bidding partners CVC Capital and Providence Equity Partners and Bain Capital and Nordic Capital.
Three bids of £1 billion are believed to be on the table.
Founder John Caudwell announced in November that the group was up for sale following a strategic review of the business by NM Rothschild.
Despite industry predictions that the group would be broken up business managers have insisted it will remain intact.
The group has refused to comment on the reports.

The network claims it provides business with the freedom to use services as they wish without having to commit to specific amounts of voice or data. All bundle usage is charged at standard rates.
Orange understands that businesses want predictable costs and simpler pricing said a spokesman. 85 per cent of financial management professionals argue that complex tariffs and pricing make it impossible to determine the true value of offerings from operators.